Hale O Kawaipuna

On May 23, 2011, the Columbia Law School Center for Climate Change Law held a conference entitled, "Threatened Island Nations: Legal Implications of a Changing Climate."

Topics discussed included: statehood and statelessness, resettlement and migration, international and diplomatic options, legal remedies, and adaptation and domestic options.  Papers, research, and other information from the conference can be found at www.law.columbia.edu/centers/climatechange/resources/threatened-island-nations.

The entire conference was recorded and is online at www.law.columbia.edu/centers/climatechange/resources/threatened-island-nations/livestream.

The National Ocean Council will hold a public listening session in the Pacific Islands Region on June 16, 2011, to solicit input to develop the strategic action plans that will implement the National Ocean Policy.

The event will be held at the Neal Blaisdell Center in Honolulu from 1:00 - 4:00 pm. Hawaii Satellite locations will be held at the locations below.

• Maui Community College (Ka’a’ike 103), 310 Ka'ahumanu Ave, Kahului, HI 96732-1617, June 16, 1:00-4:00 pm
• Kauai Community College (LRC 121), 3-1901 Kaumuali´i Highway, Lihue, HI 96766, June 16, 1:00-4:00 pm
• UH-Hilo (LRC 344), 200 W. Kawili St., Hilo, HI 96720-4091, June 16, 1:00-4:00 pm

Last year, I wrote about the Final Recommendations of the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force that President Obama adopted by Executive Order on July 19, 2010.

The Final Recommendations included the creation of a Policy Coordination Framework and Implementation Strategy.  Under the Framework, the United States is subdivided into nine regional planning areas.  Hawaii is part of the Pacific Islands Region, which includes Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana
Islands, and American Samoa.  The Implementation Strategy identifies priority objectives that our Nation will pursue to address pressing challenges facing the ocean, our coasts, and the Great Lakes.  One of those nine strategies is Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning (CMSP) to implement comprehensive, integrated, ecosystem based coastal and marine spatial planning and management in the United States.  Each regional planning area is tasked with developing a CMSP for its region.

The National Ocean Council (NOC) will hold a National CMSP Workshop in Washington, DC, on June 21-23.  The first day of the Workshop will be a dedicated public and stakeholder session.  This public session will take place on Tuesday, June 21, 2011, from 9:00 am to 5:30 pm, in the Yates Auditorium at the U.S. Department of the Interior, located at 1849 C Street, NW Washington, DC.  For those who cannot attend the session in person or if interest exceeds capacity, it will also be available to the public through a live webcast on June 21, 2011 at www.doi.gov/live.

For more about this initiative, visit the NOC website at www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/oceans.

On Tuesday, June 7, 2011, the Natural Resources Section (NRS) of the Hawaii State Bar Association (HSBA) will hold its monthly brown bag lunch meeting from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. at the HSBA conference room.

NRS will host guest speaker Sterling Wong, Senior Public Policy Advocate of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, who will present: "Protecting Native Hawaiian resources at the 2011 Legislative Session," in addition to providing commentary on other natural/cultural resource bills introduced during the session. Joining Mr. Wong will be Jeff Kent and Jocelyn Doane of the OHA Public Policy Team.

Non-NRS members welcome on a space available basis.

The Natural Resources Section of the Hawaii State Bar Association (HSBA) will host a panel of guest speakers who will present, “Introduction to Land Trusts in Hawaii," at its Tuesday, May 3, 2011 monthly brown bag lunch meeting from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. at the HSBA conference room.

Panelists include:

• Laura Hokunani Edmunds Kaakua is the Native Lands Field Representative for The Trust for Public Land (TPL).  Before joining TPL, Laura was Program Coordinator for Envision Hawai'i, a non-profit that brings together and trains young public servants and social entrepreneurs in Hawaii.  Prior to that, she worked for Judge Greg Nakamura in the Hilo circuit court, Earthjustice in Honolulu, and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs in the Native Rights, Land and Culture division.  Laura is a graduate of the University of Hawaii’s William S. Richardson School of Law, where she obtained an Environmental Law Certificate, and Boston College, where she majored in political science and communications.
  
  
• Dr. Dale Bonar earned his PhD in Marine Science at UH, after which he spent 16 years as a Professor of Zoology and Research Scientist at the Center of Marine Biotechnology, University of Maryland. Returning to the west coast he founded Aquatic Environmental Sciences, a consulting company for marine and freshwater coastal issues.  Board service with a local Land Trust resulted in taking over directorship of the Northwest Program of the National Land Trust Alliance.  In this position he worked with Land Trusts from Wyoming to Alaska, helping them grow and professionalize. He returned to Maui in 2002 to become Executive Director of the Maui Coastal Land Trust (now the statewide Hawaiian Islands Land Trust) and serves as chair of the Natural Areas Reserve System and the Legacy Land Conservation Commission.  Hawaiian Islands Land Trust now protects over 17,000 acres of conservation lands in Hawaii.
  
  
• John Henshaw is the Director of Land Protection and Conservation Partnerships at The Nature Conservancy (TNC).  He earned a B.S. in forestry from Humboldt State University and a M.S. in forest engineering from Oregon State University.  He began his Forest Service career in 1978 in California as a zone logging engineer for Sierra and Sequoia national forests.  From there, John held several positions with the National Forest Foundation, the Forest Service, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.  His last position in the Forest Service was the Pacific Rim Forest Legacy Program Manager (2003-2009).  Forest Legacy is a land conservation program in the State and Private Branch of the Agency that works to promote the long-term integrity of forestlands. John covered a large area in managing this program including Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, and the Pacific Islands.  In January of 2009, he retired from the US Forest Service with over 30 years experience. In February of 2009 he started a new career with the Nature Conservancy as the Director of Conservation and was responsible for all of the conservation work of TNC in Hawaii. In August 2010 he moved into his current job as the Director of Land Protection and Conservation Partnership, focusing on a major land acquisition program for TNC Hawaii and representing TNC Hawaii in several State-wide conservation partnerships.

On Tuesday, April 5, 2011, the Natural Resources Section (NRS) will hold its monthly brown bag lunch meeting from 12:00 to 1:00pm at the HSBA conference room (located on the 10th floor of Alakea Corporate Tower, 1100 Alakea Street).

NRS will host guest speaker Jeffrey Mikulina, Executive Director of the Blue Planet Foundation, who will present: "Accelerating Hawaii's Clean Energy Future."

Prior to working with the Foundation, Mr. Mikulina served for ten years as the director of the Sierra Club, Hawaii Chapter. His accomplishments in environmental advocacy include legislation that sets a binding cap on Hawaii’s greenhouse gas emissions, requires that all new homes use solar water heaters, requires returnable deposits on all beverage containers, provides incentives for renewable energy use, establishes curbside recycling on O‘ahu and increases the funding of natural resources through tourism taxes. Mr. Mikulina earned a Master’s of Science degree in engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign studying decision theory.

Mr. Mikulina's discussion will explore some of the underlying drivers to accelerating Hawaii's transition to a clean energy future, including policies in play at the state legislature and Public Utilities Commission, and he will share some of the programs that Blue Planet is launching to help people make smart energy choices.

On Tuesday, February 1, 2011, the Natural Resources Section (NRS) of the Hawaii State Bar Association (HSBA) will host guest speaker Gary Gill, Deputy Director of the Environmental Health Administration, Hawaii Department of Health, who will present: "What is left of the State's environmental programs?"

Mr. Gill has had a lengthy career in government and community service. At the age of 26, Mr. Gill was elected to the Honolulu City Council and served two years. Mr. Gill was then appointed as the Director of the Office of Environmental Quality Control and as Deputy Director of Health for the Environment during the administration of Governor Ben Cayetano.

Mr. Gill subsequently transitioned to the non-profit community as Development Director for the Sierra Club, Program Manager for Kokua Kalihi Valley and Executive Director of Waimea Valley on the North Shore of Oahu. Since 2009, Mr. Gill has served as the Program Director for the Blue Planet Foundation of Hawaii where he has developed a CFL bulb exchange program and the Hawaii Home Energy Makeover TV show, among other projects.  Recently, Governor Neil Abercrombie asked Mr. Gill to once again lead the environmental protection programs for the State of Hawaii.

NRS holds its monthly brown bag lunch meeting from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. at the HSBA conference room.  Guests are welcome but priority will be given to paid members.

According to the Honolulu Advertiser, Hawaii's governor elect Neil Abercrombie nominated state Senator Russell Kokubun (D, South Hilo-Puna-Kau) to serve as chairman and director of the state Department of Agriculture ("DOA"). Kokubun will replace outgoing director Sandra Lee Kunimoto.

According to his state capitol webpage, Kokubun lists the following experience:

• Member, Senate Health Care Summit Working Group (2010-Present)
• Chair, Senate Ad Hoc Committee (2009)
• Legislator in Residence, UH College of Social Sciences Public Policy Center (2008)
• Chair, Hawai`i 2050 Sustainability Task Force (2005-2008)
• Member, Joint Investigative Committee on Bureau of Conveyances (2007)
• Member, Joint Investigative Committee on Felix Consent Decree (2001)
• Member, Board of Land and Natural Resources (1998-2000)
• Advisor, National Trust for Historic Preservation (1994-1999)

DOA has approximately 300 employees statewide. It is headed by the executive board of agriculture. The executive board is comprised of ten members who are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the state senate: one representative from each of the counties of Hawaii, Kauai and Maui; four at-large members; Chairperson of the Department of Land and Natural Resources; Director of the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism; and the Dean of the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources - University of Hawaii.

Pursuant to HRS § 26-16, DOA shall:

1. Promote the conservation, development, and utilization of agricultural resources in the State;
2. Assist the farmers of the State and any others engaged in agriculture by research projects, dissemination of information, crop and livestock reporting service, market news service, and any other means of improving the well-being of those engaged in agriculture and increasing the productivity of the lands;
3. Administer the programs of the State relating to animal husbandry, entomology, farm credit, development and promotion of agricultural products and markets, and the establishment and enforcement of the rules on the grading and labeling of agricultural products; and
4. Administer the aquaculture.

Mr. Abercrombie nominated the following leaders to key agencies responsible for Hawaii's natural resources, statewide energy planning, and land use regulations:

• William Aila Jr., director and chairman of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.  This position is currently held by Laura Thielen.  Within the DLNR is the State Historic Preservation Division, which is charged with, inter alia, implementing Hawaii's native Hawaiian burial laws and the federal and state historic preservation acts.   SHPD has been under close scrutiny by the U.S. Department of the Interior's National Parks Service for SHPD's failure to comply with provisions of the National Historic Preservation Act.
• Richard Lim, director of the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.  DBEDT is is Hawaii's resource center for economic and statistical data, business development opportunities, energy and conservation information, and foreign trade advantages.  Mr. Lim is the managing director of Sennet Capital. Prior to Sennet Capital, Mr. Lim was president and chief operating officer of City Bank until its merger with Central Pacific Bank.  He will replace Director Theodore E. Liu.
• Alapaki Nahale-a, to the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands.  DHHL's mission is to manage the Hawaiian Home Lands trust effectively and to develop and deliver lands to native Hawaiians.  Mr. Nahale-a is currently the Executive Director for the Hawaii Charter Schools Network.  He will replace Director Micah Kane.

Under HRS § 26-31, the above directors are "nominated and, by and with the advice and consent of the senate, appointed by the governor, for a term to expire at the end of the term for which the governor was elected."

For more land use related news, see the Land Use News archive.

A public meeting will be held on Nov. 18 at the Kealakehe Elementary School cafeteria at 7:00 p.m. to inform the community about a site selection study for a court complex in Kona on the Big Island, and to receive input on the process, the potential sites, and the Environmental Impact Statement Preparation Notice (EISPN).  Representatives from Group 70 International, Inc., the Department of Accounting and General Services, and the Hawaii State Judiciary will be present.

As required by the state’s environmental review law, an EISPN was filed with the Office of Environmental Quality Control (OEQC) and will be published on Nov. 8 at http://hawaii.gov/health/environmental/oeqc/index.html.